Chapter 1 Rin Matsuoka knew her first
by 96Rance
Summary: This is a sorta/kinda Mary Sue story with an OC.


My name is Hotaka Shuichi, I go to a private school in Australia so I can learn how to swim better. Today there was a new kid, a Japanese student. He looked around the age of 12 or 13. "My name is Rin Matsuoka! Name sound like girl, but.. I am boy! Nice to meet you! Please!" Said a boy speaking Engrish. Everyone looked at him oddly, but not me. I smiled. He was confused by them. He did nothing wrong. Maybe he didn't sound like them, but why did it matter? The red haired boy that just introduced himself looked at me and noticed my glance. I was the only kid that didn't look confused. He giggled and walked down the isle to sit behind me. Of course I wasn't going to talk to him yet. Class was starting. The teacher spoke, "Okay, thank you. Now let's start our lesson in Ancient Rome." Our teacher began drawing on the board as I immediately knew that I needed to get a piece of paper to copy it down. I quickly got a sheet and placed it on my desk, then grabbing a pencil and copying it down. "Hey!" Said the same boy behind me. I slowly glanced back, hoping my teacher wouldn't see. "Do you want to be my friend?" He said excitingly. I mouthed something to him, leaving him confused. "You can whisper to me! Come on!" I quickly looked forward as soon as I heard my teacher's voice. "Rin. I know you're new here, but you can make friends later." Everyone started laughing, causing Rin's smile to go away. I felt bad for him, but I really didn't want to get in trouble. I could hear him finally getting out his paper and pencil to take notes. At least he doesn't goof off.

The bell rang for a ten minute break and I quickly packed up my stuff and stood up. Or so I thought, I was slow than usual. Maybe the thought of the new kid behind me slowed me down. Most of the kids were out of the room as I was finally on my feet, but he was still there. He placed his hands on my shoulders and turned me around, whispering quietly. "When you whisper, you actually make sound." He laughed, but I sighed. "So...uh...Will you be my friend?" I opened my mouth, but hesitated. "What's wrong..?" He tilted his head. I really do want to be his friend...but I can't... "...You don't want to be my-" I kneeled down, trying my best to make as much noise as possible as I did to cut him off. I opened up my bag and pulled out a marker board. I then sat down and placed it on the desk. I took the marker that was attached to it out and started writing on the board. '**I can't speak**.' Is what it said. I showed it to him and as he read it, he grew a serious expression. "You can't?" I nodded in response. "That's why you didn't care about how I sounded. You don't have a sound at all." I shrugged as another response. "But.." He tilted his head. "Does that mean you can't be my friend?" He said this with hesitation, was he fixated by me or did he just want friends? '**I do'** I wrote with an underline and an exclamation point. His eyes nearly fell out of it's sockets they went so wide. "What's your name!?" '**Hotaka Shuichi, nice to meet you Rin**.' I gave him a cheeky grin. I don't know how I'll be able to keep up with him like this, but I'll try. He is my only friend after all. No one wants to be friends with a mute. If only they knew.

After school was over I went to it's pool to practice my swimming. Little did I know that he was in there, swimming alone. Many people swim here, him and I were just early. I'm always here early. Did he know that I would be here? He was swimming butterfly and wasn't half bad. I walked over to the edge of the pool and watched him swim to the end. He brought his head up and gasped loudly, climbing out of the pool and slamming his fist on the tile. "I need to do better!" Is what echoed through the pool area. He then looked towards the direction that I was coincidentally standing at. I mouthed something once again, making an 'Egh' sound, but I grabbed my throat and literally choked myself for a second. Rin looked down and muttered, "Sorry you had to see that." I walked over to him and took my marker-board out again, '**It's fine. I'm big on swimming too.'** He read it then looked away. "You don't get it...!" I erased it and quickly tried to write something else, but he took the board from me, standing up. "And don't write that you do." He dropped a timer with my board down to the floor and walked into the shower room. I bent down and picked up the timer first to see what time he made. He was apparently timing himself. Counting some second off, he made a decent time. Why is he so mad? I sighed and walked into the locker room to change into my one-piece, clinging the board to my side. After a few minutes, I walked out to see him gazing at the pool with a morbid face. He turned to me as I got closed and spoke in a serious tone. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have taken your board away... I shouldn't have taken away your language." That was cute. Even sad, he called my writing a language. I was going to write a question about what was wrong with him before, but he interrupted my motions with his voice. "OH! And your swimsuit is kawaii! You probably don't know what that means. But it means cute in Japanese!" I knew this. "Now! I want to watch you swim in it!" He pointed at me and then the pool. I nodded and put my board down, walking over to the starting block, but crawling down the ladder to latch on underneath. My style was backstroke. "Like Makoto..." He muttered to himself. Oh how I wish I could yell out something among the lines of, I could swim better than him. But no. He counted me off and I pulled off a weak start due to my inner thought, stupid me! "Goooo Hota!" Man that sounds so boyish.. I swam to the other side and kicked off, swimming back. He continued cheering me on until I got back. "Wow! Good job! You're nearly as fast as me!" Well... If I would have gotten that start.. "Hey!" He looked at me with a huge smirk. "What other styles do you know?" I climbed up the ladder, shaking my head because he obviously forgot that I couldn't speak, then I grabbed the board. '**I can only do freestyle and backstroke**' was what I wrote. Rin shrugged. "Well I can do freestyle. Let's have a race!" He ran to the starting block and slapped on his goggles in some odd way. I put my marker-board down just as the janitor came in. "Hey! The pool is closed today!" He yelled at the two of us. Oooh yeeah, I completely forgot. Obviously Rin didn't know since he was new. But Rin just hopped off the block and shrugged it off. "Come on Hota!" We both got changed in different locker-rooms, then decided to walk home together.

We were walking near the beach as I kept my board in hands. I've never had to keep it so close before. He kept talking to me and constantly asked questions about Australia. I actually didn't know much, this was my second year here. "Hey, what's your phone number?" He blurted out all of a sudden. I didn't think much of it, but I wrote it down anyways. He took out his phone and entered it into his contacts. "I texted you, so you can just add it later." I nodded. Sometimes I really don't think I should take the time to just write one word.

Later that night Rin called me on the phone, I instantly declined. That idiot. I'm mute! He kept on and on until he finally realized and texted me. '**Sorry. Forgot you couldn't speak**.' I sighed and texted back. '**Its fine, Rin**.' I walked over to my bed and lied down, sticking the phone above my head, continuing to text him. It lasted for awhile. Soon I began to text him about his swimming today. Why did he get mad? There was a long pause in his response, but he finally replied. It was a long story about how his father had a dream, but died before he could accomplish it. Now Rin wants to fulfill his father's dream, but it seemed impossible with his current swimming speed. I tried to cheer him up, and after awhile he changed the topic. I should have expected it. I soon feel asleep with the phone laying on my face.

Everyday now, we both swam and gave each other pointers. It was enjoyable, but hard because I "couldn't speak." I never tried making anymore friends, I didn't want any. Rin was enough to fill up the whole list. And whenever Rin tried, he just seemed weird. Today I was resting by a tree and he walked up to me, sobbing. '**What's wrong?**' I wrote on the marker-board, tilting my head. "No one wants to be my friend..." I frowned at him. '**You're my only friend and I don't mind**.' "But you can't speak." Wh-what? My eyes widened in shock. "I-I mean.. Listen, you're a great friend. But just having a mute friend feels..." I gagged from his words. '**Speak Japanese**.' "You won't understand it." '**Do it.**' Rin sighed and spoke, "Soko ni. Watashi wa nihongo o hanashite iru." (There. I'm speaking Japanese.) I stood up and finally spoke as well, "Watashi wa nihonjindesu." (I am Japanese.) /Now they are speaking Japanese, but I'll continue to type in English./

Rin backed up. "But aren't you mute?!" I shook my head, "No. I refuse to speak English because I can't pronounce anything correctly. People make fun of me and won't be my friend. They also do the same to you. I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier... It's hard for me to trust people..." Rin stood there, flabbergasted. "So you came from Japan?" I hugged myself and looked to the side. "Yes.. I came here to swim... Not the same reason you wanted to, but I did." He actually smiled, "Wow, that's so cool. You're closer to me than I thought! Let's go to the local pool!" He ran away, waving for me to chase him down and reach the place before him. I kept my marker-board and chased after him. Oh how I wish I could have thrown it then. I only want to talk to him now. But business is business. I can't even talk to my fake family, they even think I'm mute.

We reached the local pool and walked inside, stupid me had to go rent a swimsuit, but he apparently wears his swim trunks under his pants. We've raced many times before, but this felt different. "Hey, Hota. I did this with my friend before I left to Australia. Let's place a bet. If I win, I can make you do anything I want once, and it will never expire. And if you win, you get to do the same." I thought about this for a moment and nodded. "Sure!" We both walked up to the starting block. He couldn't do the backstroke well, but we could both evenly swim freestyle. A buzzer 'obviously' buzzed for us to go and we both started off at the same time. We landed into the water and everything went dramatic. Looking to the right I saw him. Rin was trying his best, he really wanted to win this bet it seemed, but I wasn't going to let him. I tried to speed up by shortening my arms to let them go out quicker, but I could see him still ahead of me. We hit the wall and made a turn, his boost here made me know that I lost. I didn't give up though, I still tried even though I knew.. Finally we reached the end to him cheering from his victory. "Yes! I won!" I smiled for him. Maybe adding to his ego was fine. And his bet won't kill me, it can't be that bad.

A month later my parents wanted me back in Japan. I had no choice but to leave Rin and return. I bawled my eyes out all night long thinking about this. When I was getting on the bus to go to the airport he ran as fast as he could to get to me. "You can't leave! What about the bet? I did this to my friend too!" He yelled. "I'm sorry Rin. I have no choice. I'll write to you.."

"That all happened..." I muttered to myself, lying down in my bed on a Sunday morning. And now I'm 17... Still in Japan.


End file.
